Of Water and Circuits
by Thunderscourge
Summary: All Android 17 wants to do is fight Piccolo to find Goku, but manipulations of the timeline start to interfere with that simple plan: what is a Shadow Dragon and why are they here? What of Cell, who sees the powers of other displaced villains and craves to have them for himself? Can Trunks manage to rectify what others have done and restore the timeline? (What-if, Xenoverse)
1. Pride Meets Arrogance

_"Mira, how about we try something different?"_

 _"And how do you suppose we do that?"_

 _"Turles, Slug, and Cooler helped us spice things up, but why stop at just a couple interlopers?"_

 _"They have to be of a certain power. Too strong and we cannot harvest the energy from their battles, and if they are too weak..."_

 _"Why bother. Precisely what I am thinking...so for this time period there are those reject Androids, the screaming madman...peers, yes, but do we need more Androids or another Saiyan?"_

 _"Who else is there?"  
_

 _"While we have our fun with the timeline, why not delve elsewhere? I am sure there are some others we can use...we wouldn't want to let perfectly good warriors and monsters go to waste, now would we? Especially not when we can spawn them all on our own right at the time period we wish...those Dragon Balls have had their uses for our foes, and now they shall serve us, with a little finessing..."_

* * *

Located nearby the house of Master Roshi the Turtle Hermit was a brutal yet equal display of power between two of the world's strongest combatants, the Namekian named Piccolo and the Android designated Seventeen, as the latter sought to force the former to tell him the location of Goku. Doctor Gero had programmed his Android creations to seek out Goku and exact his revenge upon the man who ruined the Red Ribbon Army, but after killing their creator the Androids named Sixteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen had taken to finding Goku at their own pace as if it all were a game despite their programming.

Seventeen and Piccolo were of equal power levels, though their specialties did differ and made their battle more than a clash of the exact same power: whereas Piccolo swung harder, Seventeen was more agile and capable of taking advantage of his opponent's openings better while avoiding retribution. Whereas Piccolo could regenerate his body and limbs if need be, Seventeen had unlimited energy and could fight eternally if need be so long as he was not defeated in one fell swoop.

Both of them were aware of their relative positions in the conflict, with even Seventeen in all his smugness being able to admit that his opponent was far more capable than the last time they fought and was actually a worthy opponent. However, there was a reality to their situation that served as a tie-breaker between the two: so long as Piccolo did not just instantly kill Seventeen, Seventeen would wear him down and eventually be able to overcome him when Piccolo's stamina faltered. It was a matter of time before Piccolo was slain in his opposition to the Androids, with the only allies he had who could truly help him far away from the battle preparing for and in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

After a series of blows traded evenly at blurring speeds between Seventeen and Piccolo the two separated themselves to gather their bearings, with Seventeen grinning at his opponent who he could see beginning to show signs of exhaustion, "Give it up, Piccolo. You may be as strong as me, but my power is infinite. You're slowing down bit by bit, while I can fight until the end of time."

Piccolo grinned back, for while he was not one prone towards humor usually, he was actually quite enthralled by the close nature of this conflict. There had been moments when he thought he had vanquished Seventeen only to find that instead the Android had escaped certain death be it through a reversal of Piccolo's attack or be it through the reveal of Seventeen's powerful barrier he possessed to shield him. His allies did not appear worried at all about the situation given this, with Android Eighteen occasionally shifting her hair lazily to fix it after the island shook with the power demonstrated by the fighters, and with Sixteen seemingly ignoring the conflict entirely as he looked off towards the ocean as if he were curious.

If Seventeen and his comrades wanted to think that he was going to win, however, Piccolo would let them: letting him get full of himself and make careless mistakes would only serve to benefit Piccolo in the long run.

"We'll see about that, Seventeen. That arrogance will get you killed."

The two fighters rushed forth towards one another to re-engage their combat once again, their minds enthralled by the rush of the battle and also afraid of what might happen if they fail to continue putting forth the same power and effort as they had until then given just how close it was. When one would strike the other they would have an attack returned right back at them making for a thrilling display of two equal warriors dueling that had the unfortunate circumstance of only being performed before a pacifist and a girl who was more worried about how the conflict might ruin her stolen clothing than anything else about it.

A third viewer who was also not enthralled by the battle happened to come by just then as Seventeen and Piccolo's next strikes were thrown out of balance and their attacks harmlessly flew by one another as a gust of wind hurled them out of the other's way.

"Ahem."

Seventeen jumped to his feet first, recovering with a speed which belied his anger at having both his fight interrupted and his favorite scarf-bandana torn a bit by the vicious wind of whoever this interloper was. He looked around manually, not possessing the ability to scan power levels like Sixteen or the training to sense them like many of Piccolo's allies, and eventually came to look at where Sixteen had been staring for quite some time, apparently having sensed the approaching person without mentioning it. This told Seventeen that, wind or not, they weren't enough of a threat for Sixteen to actually care, which soothed some of Seventeen's worry that it was someone who might actually pose a problem.

The interloper was a woman with light blue skin and with hair a darker shade of blue, with a golden fixture shaped like a tentacle going down the middle of her long flowing hair that ran down her back. Her teal robes had a darker teal scarf at the top, below which hung a necklace seemingly made of shark teeth, and adorning her forearms were a pair of simple bracelets that were mimicked with a similar set around her lower shins. Possessing only short sleeves and her robe ending at her knees before spreading out in a jagged pattern that revealed her lower legs, she had no shoes or socks to match her aquatic theme as she hovered above the water at the island's edge.

What got to Seventeen was not her clothing however but rather the smug yet calm expression she wore on her face at the same time. Wiping off a bit of blood from his cheek where the wind had cut him, Seventeen then pointed the same hand's thumb away from the island as he shot an annoyed glare back at her.

"Hey, we're in the middle of something here. Beat it, lady."

Seemingly having a similar ego to the Android who thought himself the strongest being on the planet, the woman placed a hand on her hip as she lazily hovered in place and looked over the destruction that the island had undergone, "I would like to ask why you see fit to destroy my islands in your little game."

It was true that there had been quite the collateral damage to the landscape as Seventeen and Piccolo slammed one another down into the ground and stray ki blasts left craters in their wake and cracks in the dirt could be seen where shockwaves had ripped through it as aftereffects for Seventeen and Piccolo having their strikes clash. Still, the thought that this person, whoever she was, owned the islands that were being damaged in this little spat amused Seventeen since they certainly didn't look like they were anyone's property.

"Sorry, lady, but we're settling some business that's probably way over your head. So just go on your merry way and we'll finish up here soon enough. Until then I don't have time for you, so make scarce unless you want the next beating."

The woman raised a hand to her mouth as she let out a noblewoman's laugh, with her taking his threat as a joke, "I can't even sense your power, Human, and yet you dare to tell me what to do?"

Eighteen snorted as her brother continued to argue with some random woman who didn't appear to be all that threatening outside of a little wind she could seemingly throw around. Seventeen was more focused on 'fun' and indulging his ego than just finishing things it seemed, since Eighteen had been expecting him to finish this fight already with the prior assumption that Seventeen was still more powerful than Piccolo, who had actually received a severe power boost by fusing with the Namekian known as Kami prior to the battle. To Eighteen, it seemed now like Seventeen was just deliberately wasting time.

Sixteen on the other hand calculated that this newcomer's power level was below Seventeen's by a fair margin, enough to challenge him but not actually a full threat towards him. She could tip the balance in favor of Piccolo, at which point Sixteen supposed he or Eighteen would have to break things up, but he would rather not be forced into such a position since it would not mean fighting Goku, his one and only goal presently, but rather some other person, which would bring him no pleasure. Fighting for fun was foreign to him unlike Seventeen or Eighteen.

In an attempt to make fun of the person daring to interfere with his battle Seventeen gave her a mocking bow, "So, to who do I owe the pleasure, your Highness?"

She could sense his insincerity, but all the same the blue woman indulged his request for a name anyways with a haughty turn of the head, "Princess Oto is what I am called, and you would do best to remember it."

Seventeen stood back up and casually turned his back on her as he focused again towards Piccolo, who had been observing them in seeming worry that he too might have to fight two foes all of a sudden, "My apologies, Princess, but I don't really care. If you want to do something about us, feel free to go ahead and try, but I'm a bit busy here and don't have time for floating blue people who don't know what shoes are."

"I am Princess Oto, Shadow Dragon, and Goddess of Wind and Water," the one named Oceanus Shenron gripped her fists as her face flushed red out of anger, "I will not forgive such insolence!"

When she waved a hand and a violent gust of wind hacked away at Seventeen this time he was prepared and he braced himself with his arms, the sleeves on his forearms being torn as he protected himself from the brunt of the attack. The strike pushed him back a good twenty feet even as he dug his feet into the ground, and the blood dripping from his arms made Seventeen realize that he actually would have to take her a bit more seriously than he had been. When her follow up attack struck him, it was not his body which endured it but rather a force field he summoned to protect himself from any repercussions. He hated using it since it felt like a cowardly tool, but some times called for its usage and so he decided that since he couldn't block the air itself on his own that he ought to be able to rely upon it.

Sitting within his barrier and slowly powering it off as Oceanus Shenron began to realize that he was invulnerable from within, Seventeen made a 'come at me' gesture to goade her further, "Any other titles you want to add to the list I'll make you eat when I'm done with this one?"

Having seen this little argument go on long enough which didn't have to do with their goal of killing Goku, Eighteen chastised her brother for not just focusing on Piccolo and beating him already, "Seventeen, stop wasting time. We took forever to get here, I'm not wasting any more time waiting for you to finish squabbling with some woman."

Oceanus formed a symbol with her hands which then resulted in the wind around Eighteen hurling her back into a small rock outcropping on the island. As Eighteen was caught protectively by Sixteen, the Shadow Dragon who did not belong in this timeline scoffed at Eighteen's attempt to interfere, "Ohohoho, really? You had best pay your respects, harlot, along with that rebellious boy who looks like a girl, the slug, and-"

Her attention on Eighteen and Sixteen, Oceanus Shenron turned just in time to see Seventeen throwing a punch right into her face. She attempted to react but was too late to stop his agile strike that he had leapt forth to perform, resulting in her tumbling back through the air until she caught herself just before Seventeen's follow up charge and erected a barrier of her own to stop him: a tornado which surrounded her and which swatted him away as he attempted to pummel her further for daring to mock his twin.

Despite having been struck Oceanus smirked as a bit of dark blue blood dribbled down her lip, "I'll admit your speed caught me offguard, but that won't happen again."

Another attempt by Seventeen to break through her wind wall revealed that she was invulnerable, and so he flew back to the island where he tried to think of how to defeat this intruder when yet another decided to appear.

"There you are!"

Oceanus turned to see a young man arrive at the scene, the lean man in a Capsule Corporation jacket having flown right up to her. She didn't recognize him, but he seemed to be another fighter if the sword on his back meant anything, "Another one of your friends?"

Piccolo was shocked by how Trunks was here when he ought not to be done training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber yet, though something seemed...different about this Trunks. He was wearing different clothing than usual and his hair seemed to be different as well, causing Piccolo to question him, "Trunks? What are you doing here?"

Trunks looked away from Oceanus for a moment to address Piccolo, "Correcting an abnormality in the timeline...it's a long story, I'm sorry I can't say more, but we have to defeat her before...we have to defeat her soon!"

Seventeen recognized the brat from when he and Eighteen beat him and the other allies of Goku like they were nothing recently, and since he didn't seem much stronger than then he didn't bother to pay him any more mind than he had then, "Whatever, you two have fun doing that. I'll play with you next, kid, when I'm done with Piccolo here."

All this time Piccolo had not been doing nothing however, and as soon as Seventeen said his name Piccolo said something of his own.

"Special Beam Cannon!"

Seventeen heard the name and threw himself to the side to avoid whatever it was Piccolo was throwing out at him, barely avoiding by inches a piercing strike that would have killed him in one shot as it spiraled in a closer beam across the island.

After Seventeen recovered from sudden leap he had to make to one side he turned to Piccolo with a grin, "Smart, but what a cheap shot Piccolo."

Nearby Trunks, or rather a second Trunks unfamiliar to Piccolo, was charging at and swinging at the Shadow Dragon with a reckless fury born of being pressed for time. He was trying to beat some deadline no-one else there was wary of, and so despite being far more powerful than Oceanus Shenron he was not managing to land a single strike upon her as the wind pushed invisibly his attacks off their mark and which reflected his ki attacks right back at him.

"Why can't my attacks..." not being dim-witted even if he was rushing for time, Trunks recalled some of the details of this particular foe from when Goku and another fought her in a different timeline, "Right! You're the Shadow Dragon of wind and water, Oceanus Shenron!"

As Seventeen had learned, she was protected by the air she held power over, and so long as it remained up she would be invulnerable to any attacks coming in at her no matter how much more powerful they were than her own strength. Trunks had not been there for that encounter himself and so he did not know the details of its weakness, but he remembered there being one, so he decided he ought to try and pinpoint it by attacking more. He had come to stop the sudden emergence of seven entities who should not be here at this point of time, and had now come across his first.

Oceanus scoffed as she watched Trunks fight uselessly against her barrier, striking back at him bit by bit as he bounced off of her invisible barrier with lashes of wind that did not appear to harm him much but were not negligible all the same, "Listen, boy, I'm not quite sure why you are attacking me, but know that if you keep this up you will regret it."

Seeing Seventeen initiate his fight with Piccolo again without interruption had soothed Eighteen's mind a bit, since it had looked like someone was going to ruin that one on one battle until Trunks showed up, but all the same there was a chance that whatever these other two did might indirectly or perhaps even directly influence Seventeen's fight due to the close proximity and the ki blasts being reflected everywhere.

"Sixteen, think we should help out?"

His response came as he stared at and tried to more accurately gauge the power of this 'Shadow Dragon' before them, for she was not powerful in the raw sense of possessing ki significant enough to worry Sixteen but her ability to control the environment around her seemed to possess destructive capabilities beyond her actual power, "Seventeen is still only fighting Piccolo. Depending on the outcome of the battle between those three we may have to intervene."

Eighteen thought that Sixteen must have misspoken and tried to correct him, "Three? I only see two."

Sixteen looked with some concern over towards the other edge of the island, "Now there are four others. The energy I am sensing from this new threat is considerable."

Piccolo too noticed the power emanating from nearby him as he broke off from his fight with Seventeen again, "That power..."

Seventeen noticed Piccolo's distraction and decided to not hit him while he wasn't looking, instead looking to see what had him so shocked and worried that his eyes were frozen in fear, "Oh come on, what is it with all the visitors today?"

Standing elsewhere on the island was a giant humanoid creature with an insectoid appearance, appearing like an overgrown cicada with a beak for a mouth, and a long tail hanging off of its back with a sharp tip to it. Despite its menacing green and black appearance, its voice was seemingly apologetic as it slowly approached Seventeen and Piccolo.

"I do apologize if I have interrupted you."

Glad that unlike Oceanus this one seemed to get that they were busy, Seventeen grinned and gave the same gesture to leave he had given to the Dragon earlier, "It's alright, whatever you are. Just bug off, alright? We have business to handle here, and it's starting to get a little crowded."

"Yes, I'm sure you have quite a lot on your plate..." came the seemingly understanding but also sinister voice of the bug as it continued to slowly draw near. Finally snapping out of his shock at what he had sensed, Piccoloi turned to Seventeen and shouted.

"Seventeen, he's come here to kill you!"

Seventeen's eyes widened as he heard the warning at the exact moment that the monster named Cell lunged at him, "What?"

Cell's tail darted forth at Seventeen and he barely dodged the needle sharp tip, Cell trying again and again to stab Seventeen with it at a speed which was actually on par with Seventeen's own considerable agility. Each swing of the tail drew closer to his body as the confused Seventeen continued to dodge, no longer knowing what the hell was going on.

Up in the air nearby the island Trunks paused his attempt to figure out how the wind wall worked to look and see that they had been joined by yet another, "Damnit, Cell's here!" taking a breathe in, he tried to recover and catch his breath from his relentless probing of Oceanus' defenses, "If I can defeat this Shadow Dragon then things might go as they should, but..."

He shook his head as he realized how tired he felt. There was no way he was already winded, he had been completely well rested before embarking on this mission to stop the timeline from changing due to the meddling of two other time travelers who had less than noble intentions. So why was it that he was so tired after a short skirmish?

Trunks backed away from Oceanus and her barrier so that he could try to make sense of his rapid drain of energy, "What is happening to my power?"

Seeing that he was finally catching on that something was wrong with the fight, Oceanus began let off another of her noblewoman laughs as Trunks slowly dipped in power bit by bit, "I was in the process of empowering my brother Haze when you all interrupted us by destroying my islands, and he has quite the interesting skillset. The longer you fight him, the weaker you'll be you see..."

Trunks' eyes flew open as he suddenly felt despite his extreme bout of lethargy something appear behind him, and he turned to see a large green dragon with a rotund body that basically fused its head and chest swinging a fist down at him.

"Surprise!"

Trunks should have been able to stop the attack with ease on a normal occasion, but he was too slow to react and his power too drained to just take the hit, and so he tumbled down through the air until he caught himself and managed to barely block Haze Shenron's next attack as the fat dragon chased him.

"You too?" Trunks grit his teeth as he realized he had been caught in a trap of sorts by these two dragons, one of them being able to drain energy and weaken its foes while the other was capable of shrugging off nearly any attack. Together they were not perhaps the strongest foes one could face, but most certainly they were dangerous given that they could endure seemingly any foe and whittle them down until they won, much like Seventeen's strategy against Piccolo. This left Trunks with no other option but to try and finish things even faster than he had, for he could not allow for both of these Shadow Dragons to wreak havoc on the timeline as they seemed to be about to by interfering here, "I suppose I can't hold anything back then!"

Oceanus watched as the boy's hair turned blonde and spiked up, though she didn't particularly care that he was now emanating a great deal more power, for he now was also losing just that much more: Haze sucked off a percentage of someone's energy and power they were using in a manner of speaking, and so by powering up all the opponent was doing was speeding up how fast they would lose their energy reserves. Sure, it meant things would be more dangerous for them, but it also meant they didn't have to hold out as long.

Since the blonde half-Saiyan was going to burn himself out in trying to defeat them soon enough, Oceanus decided to turn her attention over to the other scuffle going on. Seventeen had been grabbed and forced down into the ground as Cell held his tail over him threateningly, pulling in her interest greatly as she had no idea what that tail was capable of.

"Haze, deal with him. I am interested in this other fight."

"My pleasure!" her brother laughed as he smacked Trunks down, the blue and corrupted Two Star Dragon Ball in his forehead gleaming in the sun that bore down upon them. Oceanus had her Six Star Dragon Ball shining as well as she began to watch and smirk as that insufferable Human was manhandled by a giant bug.

Before Cell could actually do anything with his tail he was kicked aside by Piccolo, who moved in to protect Seventeen. This attack did not seem to cause the bug creature any harm, but it did give Seventeen the chance to get up and step away from it.

Once he was up, Seventeen had to admit he was thankful that his once enemy just stepped in to help him, "Thanks for the save, Piccolo. What is that thing? You said it is here to kill me?"

Piccolo adopted a fighting pose as Cell regained his bearings, "Its name is Cell, a biological android made by Doctor Gero. His goal is to absorb you and Eighteen with his tail to become the most powerful being that exists," Piccolo growled as he sensed Cell's power level, a level which was far higher than it had been the last time they fought, "And by the looks of it, he's already absorbed countless others to power him up even more. Last time I fought him he was weaker than me, but now..."

"I see," Seventeen nodded, accepting Piccolo's explanation and fully believing that Doctor Gero would create a monstrosity like this. After the madman kidnapped two teenagers and forcibly turned them into cyborgs, said teenagers had no trouble believing that he was a complete monster who could spawn even more. Still, Seventeen knew he had an infinite power generator inside of him that ought to make him the most powerful being there was, so he wasn't going to put up with some creature trying to take that power for itself, "Sorry, Bug, but I'm already the most powerful being there is. There isn't room for two, so if you don't want to die you had better run and hide back wherever Gero made you."

Cell seemed to be amused by Seventeen's defiance, though what he truly was was glad that Seventeen wasn't just running away, "Oh come now, Brother, don't you want to know what perfection feels like?"

"No need. The perfect warrior is already standing right here," Seventeen pointed to himself before beginning a charge at Cell, "I'll show you where I sent our dear creator!"

Seventeen's speed was revealed to be just beneath that of the creature he was fighting when his attack struck nothing but the air, with Cell then appearing beside him and bashing Seventeen down into the dirt. Before Cell could further fight him he found himself being pushed backwards by a gale of wind that was most definitely supernatural in nature given its strength. He looked up to see that Oceanus Shenron had lowered herself down to stand by Seventeen as he got back up, the Dragon seemingly joining Piccolo in deciding to defend him.

"Claws off the Human. I intend to make him bow to me, and he can't do that if you eat him or whatever it is you do with that tail," Oceanus explained as she casually joined the fray against Cell, "As much as I may dislike Scarf boy, I can feel the souls of countless innocent people screaming from you. How can I have Humans adore me as their goddess if you consume them all?"

Cell narrowed his animalistic eyes at her, none too pleased by how the wind had just torn into his chitinous body and actually hurt him to some degree, "And you are?"

Ever pleased to brag and present herself, the Dragon gave a mocking bow much like what Seventeen had shown her earlier, "Oceanus Shenron, goddess of the Six Star Dragonball, and controller of both wind and water. I am not in the best of moods today, so leave now if you wish to escape with your life."

Seeing one of the misplaced villains taking up arms against Cell caused Trunks to panic as he realized just how bad things could get from here and off the rails from what ought to be, "No! I can't let the timeline change like this! Mira and-"

He coughed up blood as Haze Shenron punched him with a massive fist into the gut, the dragon's hand being almost half the size of Trunks' body. This done, Haze reappaeared behind Trunks and shoved his shoulder out, upon which rested a set of massive spikes. Trunks howled in pain as his side was impaled upon one of them, and Haze tore him off of it to begin beating the time traveler savagely as the last of the Saiyan's power drained from him.

Oceanus cast her gaze back up towards her brother, "Haze, stop beating the fool and let him speak. I am curious about what he has to say."

Haze did as his older sister said and stopped harming Trunks, only to find that his opponent had fallen unconscious. He tucked Trunks under his shoulder as he looked back down at his sister, "Can I eat him?"

Cell launched forward when he thought Oceanus was not paying attention, only to find himself blasted back by the same wind wall the others had. This pleased Oceanus as it seemed her enemies weren't paying attention to how each other had failed before them, too enraptured by their own conflicts to care how she had managed to block her attacks. Still free to talk, she spoke back to Haze in a strict tone, "Do as you please later, but just toss him aside for now. I want him to tell me what the Hell he is talking about with ' _time_ ' when he gets up, but right now this abomination is my priority."

Seventeen tried to attack again, but he found himself blocked by the wind wall from its inside just as Cell was again forced back from its outside. Given its invisible nature they were unable to see just where it had a gaping flaw, leaving both Seventeen and Cell irritated about being unable to reach the other as Oceanus hurled wave of cutting wind after wave at Cell. Doctor Gero's ultimate creation was none too pleased by this and tried to fight through it all, but he was pushed back bit by bit even as he tried to stand his ground.

It dawned upon Cell that he did not possess these powers himself and that such a powerful ability as controlling the wind in this manner might be beneficial to a perfect creature, so he decided to add a little something to his menu as he finally broke free of her attacks by channeling his power and unleashing the full might he had inside of him. Souls cried out as he formed a barrier not of the sort Seventeen possessed but of raw power garnered from the innocent Human beings he had consumed prior to the battle.

No longer pressed back, Cell began to bring his hands back to form a Kamehameha wave all the while smirking at his own genius, "If you are going to continue interfering, I could use the appetizer before my perfection is achieved."

Beside Oceanus, Seventeen grinned as he glanced over at the enemy of his enemy that was now not really his friend but still helping him, "Guess Cell likes seafood."

The previously calm Oceanus went straight to abject fury as her face ran red and her arms and fists shook with anger at the slight she just suffered, "What did you call me!?"

Seventeen crossed his arms and shrugged, "Nothing, Blue."

Oceanus shoved him outside of her barrier and decided that she would enjoy making him bow down once this threat was taken care of, since he was _so_ arrogant as to think himself better than _her_ , a _god_ in her own opinion.

Cell unleashed his attack towards the wind barrier protecting Oceanus now, ignoring Seventeen nearby it entirely, and tried to force his way through...only to find that his attack was hurled to the side harmlessly, and that just at that moment a beam with a narrow spiral around it pierced through his chest.

Looking down to the gaping hole in his chest, Cell spent a moment coughing up blood before he looked over to where Piccolo stood, Seventeen having joined him after Cell's Kamehameha. Glaring at the two of them, Cell took a step forward only for another gust of wind to push him back farther than he had stepped forward. Now growing enraged at how many others were interfering with his plans even though he was the strongest there, Cell growled at them both.

"You again..." the hole on his chest and the wounds on his body began to fade as he used the genes he possessed from Piccolo to regenerate his body as Namekians were capable of, "So both Piccolo and the water sprite wish to stand in the way of my perfection..."

Using the same speed he had used prior to overcome Seventeen in close combat, Cell launched forth at Piccolo with fury.

"Fine then! I'll make short work of you both!"

It would be a bloody, brutal conflict, but none of those still conscious were aware that they were all being watched by two other time travelers who could only grin at how much chaos was being sewn by the inclusion of a few extra villains to the era of Cell.

Towa smirked as she wondered if the monster would manage to overcome these obstacles and come out of it stronger for the effort...or if he would need a hand to get there, one which the demon was more than willing to provide if it would bring her what she sought.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy, and if you have any thoughts they would be most appreciated in the reviews below. Also, if you haven't played Xenoverse, don't worry, all its pertinent information will be explained in-story.**


	2. In Too Deep

Cell gave no quarter as he rushed forth to fight these two enemies standing in his path to 'perfection'. He could tell that he would not be able to get to Oceanus anytime soon, so Cell instead focused his efforts on the foe who was in his grasp: Piccolo.

The Namekian stood his ground and tried to parry Cell's attack, but the sheer force of it knocked him back even though he had braced himself, and Cell possessed enough speed to then chase after Piccolo and grab hold of him. Green flesh in hand, Cell hurled Piccolo towards Oceanus to test what would happen.

Since she had control of her wind wall, Oceanus was capable of but did not bother to slow Piccolo's fall. Instead, he was hurled off of it and tossed like a rag doll across the ground nearby her.

Rising to his feet, Piccolo glared past Seventeen who was inside of the barrier and at Oceanus who was grinning at his little tumble. Unlike Oceanus, Piccolo was anything but amused, "I don't know what you are, but I see that Dragon Ball on your head. If I die the Dragon Balls will lose their power, so keep that in mind!"

Rather than bother releasing the Shadow Dragons from another universe and bringing them over, the interlopers in this timeline Mira and Towa had decided to just release those at hand: as such Piccolo had a point when he tied his own survival to their power. While Earth already would need a new Guardian for the Dragon Balls after the fusion of Piccolo and Kami, the death of Piccolo was still worrisome enough to one who relied upon the power of the Dragon Balls to begin worrying on his behalf.

"Oh wonderful. I have to babysit both of you then," Oceanus snarled, unhappy with a certain blue skinned demon who had not bothered to explain Piccolo's possible importance when they released her and her ilk from their spherical prisons within which they had spawned.

Two of her brothers had needed an extra spark to be created at all, their essence having always been inside the Dragon Ball they came from but not having had the negative energy of a wish pull them together just yet. Oceanus on the other hand, as the eldest, was grateful to finally have a chance to live outside of the orange orb that was now turned blue as it lay corrupted in her forehead, and the thought of going from being free to being imprisoned mere days after she had been released infuriated her.

Seventeen in turn was displeased with the way she referred to this spur of the moment team-up, and so he joined Piccolo in snarling at her, "Babysit? Lady, when we're through with the bug I'm going to make you the close and personal friend of the ground."

Oceanus grinned calmly as she ignored the daggers being shot her way through Piccolo and Seventeen's glares, "Just sit tight, boy. My brother and I can handle this beast," she rolled one hand in a graceful movement and with it came along a powerful gust that was visible such was the power of it, "Hopefully by then you'll understand our magnificence."

The wind crashed against Cell and knocked him back even as he braced himself, his heels digging into the island's surface as he was pushed back foot by foot. The wind possessed enough raw strength to tear through his arms and into the chitinous hide he possessed.

Seeing a breeze damage Cell filled Seventeen with newfound confidence, not yet aware of just how outmatched he was in the battle and unable to sense the depths of Cell's power like Sixteen was capable of.

"Not a chance. I'm going to be the one to show this beast its place," Seventeen pointed to himself with a thumb.

Oceanus opened her mouth to tell him she could handle this alone and that he would only get in the way, but Seventeen had already charged forward into the near invisible tornado swirling around them in a deliberate manner. Having calculated the way it was moving, Seventeen used it to grab hold of himself and hurl him around to be launched forward with the gale at his back. Oceanus huffed as she saw him use her powers for his own attack, though she also had to admit she was a bit impressed about his improvization, for now Seventeen was moving at a speed beyond even that of his own original considerable one.

Cell lowered his arms, the limbs torn to shreds by the blades of wind cutting into him but regenerating also at a considerable speed, to see beyond them for he had prioritized protecting his face and eyes from the wind. Upon lowering his guard to try and get a look at his opponents Cell was met with the sight of Seventeen's fist, which soon buried itself deep into Cell's eye socket and the impact slammed the biological android back with an amplified force. Seventeen riding a wind current caused a hit that otherwise would have made Cell laugh actually pierce and damage the eye impacted, rendering him blind momentarily, and send him reeling.

Piccolo, ever the opportunist, used this moment to jump in and connect a powerful blow to Cell's neck to try and snap it. It did not manage to do its intended job even with Piccolo's might, but it did drive Cell dragging across the ground as he fought to recover and grabbed at the dirt and rocks he slid past.

Seventeen launched himself at Cell again, though now he was not propelled by the mystical powers of a Shadow Dragon and so he did not possess the same speed and resulting might as he had in his last attack. This allowed Cell to twist on the ground and kick Seventeen in the gut the moment before his attack connected, a blow which was followed by Cell leaping up and swinging a powerful haymaker at Seventeen's face. The Android tumbled back but caught himself eventually, though the pain in his gut and neck gave him pause: he couldn't take another hit like that to his head or neck without possibly breaking it, even as tough as he was. Even his successful attack had seemingly accomplished nothing, with Cell no longer sporting a damaged eye just as his arms had recovered from their own damage. With Seventeen in the way, Oceanus had halted her attack since she had been sincere in her intentions: she couldn't get this disobedient mortal to bow to her if he was dead, and so her actually damaging attacks were halted so long as Cell was by Seventeen.

None of this stopped Piccolo from shooting a ki blast at where Cell had risen, though it was just ignored by the living abomination as it began to move again. Seeing that their current strategy was not working at all, Piccolo began to contemplate alternate ones and looked to survey the battlefield: what he saw only served to infuriate him however.

"Some allies you are! Are you just going to sit back and watch!?" Piccolo roared at the two Androids sitting on the sidelines and just watching the entire affair. This turn of his head proved to be a mistake, as while it did not beckon Sixteen or Eighteen from their position it did grant Cell an opportunity to rush forward and strike Piccolo with a powerful hit to the gut. Its impact was enough to break Piccolo's spine in a sickening snap as Cell's fist left a noticeable dent in his physique.

Seeing his ally of convenience and onetime enemy fall to the ground without control over his lower body shocked Seventeen, well aware that Piccolo was as strong if not as hardy as him, "Piccolo!"

Cell turned around and saw the Android's fist about to slam into his face, but instead of dodging he let Seventeen connect the attack. Without the surge of speed from the wind it was only enough to make Cell tilt his head to one side, no real damage inflicted whatsoever.

The next thing Seventeen saw was pitch black as Cell grabbed him by the face, claws covering Seventeen's eyes, and swung him down into the dirt by getting a grip on the Android's long hair. Cell was about to thrash Seventeen into the ground again when the air around his own arm suddenly tore into it and carved away flesh and bone from the limb. Doctor Gero's creation growled at the damage inflicted to his arm, the wind's power having seemingly increased in severity since the last time it struck him, while Seventeen dropped down and used the momentary distraction to tackle Piccolo out of harm's way.

Seventeen got up and saw Piccolo struggling to do the same, "You alright?"

Thanks to his regeneration Piccolo had recovered from what could have been a crippling injury, "I'm fine..."

The two former enemies stood up beside one another in defensive postures as they looked at their foe, who happened to be being bombarded with streams of intense air that tore into him about as fast as Cell's body could heal the wounds. With both Seventeen and Piccolo out of the way, Oceanus had unleashed the full might of her wind powers upon the overgrown bug, though witnessing her attack left Seventeen in a state of disgusted awe. Seventeen was shocked to see Cell recover from such brutal damage, but if Piccolo could stand up after having his spine snapped then this wasn't out of the ballpark of possibility.

Since Cell was busy protecting himself, Piccolo used the opportunity to ask something of him he had been wondering since Cell's arrival, "Cell, just how many people have you slain for that power?"

Cell licked the edges of his beak as he still stood with his arms bracing his face, the insect's mind contemplating how to handle this elemental manipulator's impressive skillset, "Oh I have slain very few...the other thousands, however are very much alive within me," he glanced back at Piccolo and laughed fiendishly, "Does my power frighten you, Piccolo?"

Ignoring for a moment the wind crashing against him, Cell spread out his arms as his body began to glow and radiate with enough energy to almost push Seventeen and Piccolo back from where they stood nearby. Not only was his ki surging, but an aura showed around him of seeming darkness, where if one looked hard enough they perhaps could see the screaming souls of those absorbed into his being in their eternal torment.

Cell reaching his full power would have been frightening in its own right for even someone like Seventeen who could not sense power given the strength of Cell's aura, but the sight of his victims who had been consumed so far was unlike anything the teenager turned cyborg had ever seen, "What the hell..."

Oceanus was taken aback as well, not having just quite understood the severity of Cell's nature until then. Unlike her brother Haze, who had been born of a wish to bring a good person back to life, or Syn Shenron, who was brought into full being by the wish to restore the victims back to life of Frieza and his men, Oceanus had been born of a selfish wish...though one of good intentions.

A Shadow Dragon was born opposite of their wish's intent and content, such as Haze being created from a wish to restore the guardian of a pure lake while himself possessing the powers of pollution and having an evil attitude to match. Nuova Shenron was born of King Piccolo's selfish and evil wish for youth, and so he was the goodie two shoes of the family in the eyes of the others by being born with a noble personality. Oceanus herself was inbetween the two given the complexity of her wish, leaving her not wicked like most of her siblings, but also not 'good' like Nuova.

If someone attacked her or her family, she wouldn't hesitate to just kill them, but the thought that this creature not only ate his foes but kept their souls alive within him in agony...that was beyond the Shadow Dragon's comfort level for evil. If Haze ate someone, it was crunch and done. No eternal torment included. This was sick.

"That power...you..."

Her shock had caused her to stop her attacks on Cell, leaving him free to turn his attention back at her and chuckle instead at her expense, "Don't worry, my blue friend, you will understand this power soon enough..." his tail swerved through the air to rest above his shoulder, where the tip opened up and revealed a gaping maw and throat, "Doctor Gero didn't think to alter my digestive system for dragons and their ilk, so your consumption may not be as...smooth as with others."

Oceanus stepped back, disgust bubbling up over her face, "If you think I'm going to let you get that thing anywhere near me you've got another thing coming."

Cell hearing the crashing waves of the ocean did not alert him given their present location, an island out in the middle of nowhere, but it was only when he was struck with the massive weight of a horizontal pillar of water that he realized his mistake. He was not carried too far by the current of water not because it did not possess an impact, for it possessed the full might of a powerful elemental entity, but rather because it was only a moment before he was assaulted on the other side by a different stream of water, being pressed between to rushing currents crashing against one another and drenching both him and where he stood on the island.

With Cell pinned, Seventeen lowered his guard and smirked. He had thought that this lady was just some crazy idiot for interrupting them, but here she was holding Cell at bay and crushing him from both sides. He doubted she could drown Cell even though he was completely submerged underwater, but it still was impressive considering that both he and Piccolo had not left a true mark on Cell so far.

"You know, I'm halfway impressed. Wind and water?"

The Shadow Dragon actively fighting Cell laughed as she heard herself being given a fragment of the respect she expected, "My name begins with Ocean, of course I possess power over water."

As if to demonstrate this point, she stopped the current assault upon Cell and moved her fingers and hands in another odd mixture of positions. Cell used his freedom to draw his hands back and begin an incantation even as he heard more water begin to move.

"Ka...me..."

Instead of finishing the Turtle Hermit's signature technique Cell turned his head and saw a tidal wave about to crash down upon him. He flew forward to try and outrun it, but a gust of wind blasted him back into it, where the water collided down upon him and began to press inward and exert immense pressure on him.

Now relaxed and thinking that the matter was taken care of, Seventeen continued to chat with Oceanus even as Piccolo kept himself at the ready for anything that might happen, "I thought it was Oto?"

"That is what I am called by mortals, so I will give you this opportunity to repent and use it," Oceanus tilted her head up smugly, glad to have proved her supposed superiority even though she was in fact only about the same level of power as Seventeen or Piccolo when one brought her powers into consideration. Instead of possessing their physical might, toughness, or speed, she could use her powers to devastating effect.

Seventeen shrugged nonchalantly, not caring to bother with the formality she wished to receive, "I'm not mortal, Blue, so I don't think I should call you what they do."

The disrespect continued to be a sore point for the eldest Shadow Dragon, whose face ran red as she gripped a fist in anger, "Why you..." his words dawned on her a moment later and caused her to shift from anger to confusion, "Wait, what? You're not a mortal?"

Since her abilities required her to move her hands in various ways, Oceanus gripping her fist in anger actually stopped her assault on Cell and he was soon released from her torrent of water as the last of it finished pressing into him. This alerted Piccolo, who snapped at the other two fighting Cell.

"Stop chatting and focus!"

Cell coughed out water and shook his body to relieve it of the water still present on him, though instead of seeming furious that he had just been drowned and crushed under immense pressure Cell seemed amused, "I regret to inform you that I am not in need of another bath. Now that I have rinsed off, I believe it is time that I stopped playing with my food. I will have those powers for myself."

Oceanus prepared to use her powers once again when she noticed that Cell had picked up on her unwillingness to also attack her 'allies', with Cell rushing forward at Seventeen and throwing a series of punches at the Android. Seventeen knew he could not block and parry them like he had with Piccolo, the raw strength of Cell too much for Seventeen to handle though he would not outwardly admit it, leaving him with dodging as his only course of action.

There was a delay between Oceanus' attacks and them connecting or else she would try to intervene in the two fighting in such close quarters, since there was a good chance that an attack meant for Cell could accidentally slit Seventeen's throat in their rapid dance of movements. This left Piccolo as the one to support Seventeen, who knew that physical strikes would be pointless and thus prepared another attack entirely: one which while not effective on Android Seventeen as he had learned in their own battle could very well be used against Cell.

Cell managed to connect a hit against Seventeen by luck, knocking the Android away just in time to see ki blasts flying right by them in reckless abandon.

"Piccolo, when has firing ki randomly ever done anyone any good?"

It may have been an accurate observation that such reckless expenditure of ki was usually a wasted effort, but Cell did not understand quite why Piccolo was putting such effort into firing off such energy when unlike Seventeen the Namekian did not have unlimited to spare.

Then his narrow eyes saw it: the ki blasts were remaining in place where they had flown by him. Hovering around Cell in what would be a ki minefield, they did not stay there for long.

"Hellzone Grenade!"

The multitude of ki blasts all converged on Cell's point and slammed into him one after the other in rapid fire explosions. So numerous were they that Cell was entirely shrouded by their aftermath for the nearly twenty seconds they continued to ram into him. When it was over there was a moment of hope that perhaps they had managed to wipe the creature from the face of the planet, but this hope was dashed when Piccolo frowned and a voice emerged from the barrage's dust.

"That almost hurt..." Cell mocked as he began to walk towards Piccolo, intent on paying him back for what he did. An aura was now around Cell that was unlike any he had shown before, purple and black swirling around him as raw power radiated from him. If Trunks had been awake then, he could have told them that this was the signature sign that his enemy Towa had infused someone with power to help change the outcome of a battle to mess with the timeline.

Seeing Cell show no damage from all of the blasts he had taken head on shocked Oceanus, "How? That hit him directly!"

"His power is even greater now..." Piccolo cursed to himself as he readied himself for Cell as the monster approached at a calm pace.

Seventeen too was surprised by the depths of Cell's seeming power, not knowing just why Cell had gone unscathed but suddenly coming to the conclusion that perhaps he might not be able to defeat this thing...not alone at least, "Anyone else notice he's glowing purple? No? Just me?"

Before Cell reached him Piccolo jumped forward and launched an attack of his own, only for Cell to ignore the hit entirely and backhand him, a sick snap cluing the others in to the fact that Cell had just broken his neck and a follow up hit piercing the Namekian through his lower gut, all to the sound of Cell's low, unsettling laughter, "I don't know where this is coming from, but it is appreciated."

Seventeen leapt back to avoid Cell's sudden charge at him once Piccolo dropped to the ground, but Cell was actually stopped to even his surprise as a barrier much like the one surrounding Oceanus formed around Seventeen. To keep it there she had to stop from attacking Cell, but she kept both herself and Seventeen protected despite their distance with some focus.

"What do we have here?"

Said focus nearly shattered when Oceanus twisted her head at the sound of a familiar voice, that of her young brother Syn who was arguably the strongest of their kind...and, as his name implied, one of the worst, though to her that meant little since they were on the same team.

"Syn? If Nuova comes and it will be a family reunion," she laughed, appreciating his arrival since it could mean the complete tipping of the battle in their favor. If she could leave a mark on this being, Syn could likely beat it to death.

The tall and broad Shadow Dragon was quite unlike his slight sibling, for while he was bulky like the fat Haze Shenron he possessed muscle where his older brother had his fat. Spikes came off of his pale white body at various points, with his lower abdomen a navy blue in contrast to the rest of his body. Atop his head sat the One Star Dragon Ball, and the large pointed ears he possessed both twitched as he began to observe the situation before him.

"Sister, I felt a great deal of power here and wondered if you were fighting one of our brothers. What is this?"

Oceanus continued to multitask and hold Cell at bay with her wind, shielding Seventeen from the now immense power of Cell that was well beyond what it had been before though was slowly diminishing thanks to Haze's interference, "Some monster is trying to eat the pretty boy and the blonde through that tail of his."

"Why bother interfering? Let nature take its course. The strong eat the weak, do they not?"

Her brother's indifference rankled Oceanus to some degree, as while he might be okay with some freak monster eating people and being a major threat, since he likely wasn't one to Syn, she was far from okay with letting this thing be on the loose, "Scarf boy is insufferable, but I've been helping him since that bug thing creeps me out," Syn giving her a doubtful glance made her feel the need to further defend her actions, "Besides, these are my isles. I will not permit their destruction at the hands of a monster like that in his rampage for some food."

Haze, unlike Syn, was completely in agreement with their sister as he hovered above the island by the other two. The green dragon jabbed a finger in the direction of Cell, who had stopped attacking the wind wall with ineffective ki blasts and punches to instead observe the newcomer, "We should kill that being! I sensed its power before now, and it was far weaker! If it keeps improving at this rate we won't be able to stop it!"

"Calm down, brother. Right now it is no threat to the three of us," Syn seemed contemplative as he and Cell stared at one another at a distance, "Where is Nuova though? I would think he would enjoy a powerful opponent to test his mettle against."

Oceanus shrugged in the same nonchalant way Seventeen had earlier when something came to her mind. It made sense why Cell would want to take her power, since she was actually putting up a fight against him, but what was the big deal with this Human who claimed not to be a mortal and who had a number for a name?

"So, monster, why is it that you're so interested in a weakling like this? I can't even sense his energy and you seem to think he'd be some great meal with your ability to steal power?"

Cell pointed at Seventeen and grinned with his beak, "Oh no, my blue friend, you are mistaken. That 'weakling' is an Android, an augmented Human cyborg, one whose power derives from a power generator our shared creator made for him. Its power is unlimited, it will go on forever and will never cease so long as he lives," he paused to narrow his eyes at his prey, "But as is the case sometimes with science, flaws arise."

"Flaws?" Seventeen growled, disliking the implication that he wasn't the perfect warrior as Doctor Gero had intended.

Cell continued to explain himself with a mocking tone, "You see, Android Seventeen was fitted with the intended power source with unsurpassed power Doctor Gero hoped to use to slay his enemy, Goku. Unfortunately, Seventeen proved to be disobedient and he turned on his master. He tried killing our dear creator despite all he had given you..."

This set off Seventeen's temper as the Android remembered what the mad scientist had done to him and Eighteen, forcibly transforming them into cyborgs and treating them like lab rats, "I wasn't going to just sit back and let that sick bastard touch me or my sister again!"

Cell ignored him as he instead focused on Oceanus, who he still intended to make a meal out of when possible so that he too could use her powers for his own goals, "Fortunately for Doctor Gero, there were some flaws with Seventeen's power generator, or he would have been able to kill our creator from the beginning. Some of these would come to be fixed, but one remains which Doctor Gero would have had to go to quite some effort to change for Seventeen, but chose not to."

This revelation actually halted Seventeen's anger, for while he had plenty of reason to be furious about it, it did go a long way to explain why someone like Piccolo was somehow able to match up against him.

"You see, the intended power of the generator would surpass anything imaginable, but a design flaw keeps Seventeen from reaching that potential. It is infinite, but limited," Cell continued, his eyes shifting over to Eighteen and his tongue licking its beak, "When Doctor Gero came to work on Seventeen's sister, he managed to fix this flaw and allow her to reach her full potential, but given the danger Seventeen had posed he saw fit to limit this potential on purpose. The end result was less power overall, but no flaws in its generation."

"Seventeen has the potential, and Eighteen has the refined technology to reach it. Should I possess both in my being, none shall be capable of standing in my way," Cell felt confident explaining further, since he did not consider the three Shadow Dragons to be a threat to his goals. Oceanus could not actually slay him with her powers, the green one did not appear to be doing much of anything, and the new arrival, while powerful, did not seem to have anything unique about him or at least had not demonstrated it yet. After absorbing Seventeen, Cell was confident he could turn on these others and make short work of them.

Thinking about what Cell said though made Oceanus upset to her stomach, trying to picture the horror that must be being absorbed into that creature's being, "Like a Human jigsaw puzzle. Disgusting."

"Oh, far more than just Humans..." Cell corrected, "Namekians, Saiyans, whatever the triclops is...and soon to be whatever you're made out of."

Haze, as disgusted by Cell as Oceanus, moved before his sister and readied himself for any attack Cell might throw at them. Unlike the others, she had let him through her barrier without a second thought, trusting her own kind.

"With Seventeen and Eighteen, I gain more than just raw power. Their bodies shall fuel my transformation into a more perfect being, and together with what we share we will do many great things..." Cell grinned up at the Shadow Dragons, "Simply put, apart we are but pieces of a set, much like how one Dragon Ball alone can do little on its own but together they can achieve miracles..."

Talking gave Cell time to plan how he was going to try and overcome the oppressive walls of wind that reflected all that came their way, but another part of it was that Cell knew his words could have a psychological effect on his opponents...Seventeen in particular.

"I'll show you the flaw in your thinking, monster!"

Once again Seventeen left the safety of the barrier provided for him and launched himself forward at Cell, refusing to let the abomination mock him any further.

* * *

Across the island still sat two others than Haze and Syn not directly engaging in the battle going on, Seventeen's companions Sixteen and Eighteen. Sixteen seemed pensive as he watched the brawl, while Eighteen seemed closer to bored than thoughtful.

"What should we do, Sixteen?"

The tall android double the height of his companions and far wider than either of them in his crafted muscular stature gave a slow answer, "Leaving is the most recommended course of action. This creature is more powerful than either you or Seventeen, however observation has revealed him to be no more agile."

Eighteen rose her brow, "So if we run we have a chance of getting away?"

Sixteen kept his focus on the battle rather than turn to look at Eighteen, his eyes watching the darting movements of Seventeen, Cell, and the Shadow Dragon, "Correct. He would have to give chase immediately to catch you."

Eighteen, seeing the same fight and how badly Seventeen was having the tar beaten out of him, came to a quick decision then based off of Sixteen's observation of Cell, "Sixteen, perhaps escape is best."

"Yes. You go. I will stay here."

That the Android dedicated to killing Goku and Goku alone was now setting aside his pacifistic ways caught Eighteen by surprise. He was going to fight? Against that thing? Wasn't he an outdated model?

"Huh?"

Sixteen started to walk towards the battlefield, leaving Eighteen behind as he spoke in his monotone voice, "It is best that way. You are the one Cell is seeking to unite with, so you are the one that must leave. Not me."

This did little to alleviate Eighteen's worry over what Sixteen was walking off to do, "But, Sixteen, what will you do?"

"I will kill Cell. This world is a good place. Cell wishes to destroy it. I will not let that happen."

"Sixteen, what do you think you're doing? Come back. You'll be killed!"

Sixteen looked back and smiled down at her, "That does not matter. Life is good, but life in fear is not my idea of living."

This left Eighteen silent, not having expected Sixteen to spew off some light philosophy or for him go off to fight a futile battle.

"By the way, I enjoyed the time we spent together," he waved back slowly, befitting of his slow but steady nature. On his face was a grin as the normally quiet and monotone Android sounded almost amused, "You guys are…cool."

* * *

Seventeen's attack failed when Cell maneuvered above and around him to slam him down on the ground with a powerful strike to the back. The blow slammed Seventeen down into the ground and buried him into its soil as Cell quickly lowered himself down to slam stomp his foot on Seventeen's spine. Seventeen cried out in pain as he tried to get back up, but a kick to the side sent him rolling over and his attempt failed.

Cell chuckled as he began to kick and stomp on Seventeen's vulnerable form, "This needn't have been so humiliating, Seventeen. You should know what's best for you and stop struggling."

As he brought his foot down again Cell was surprised when it was repelled suddenly by a blue barrier that had formed around Seventeen. With the focus on defense via Oceanus' powers, Seventeen had decided to give in to his pride a little and use his barrier to stop Cell just as he had used it in his battle with Piccolo to save himself from Piccolo's Hellzone Grenade.

With Cell off-guard, Seventeen dropped the barrier and launched another attack, catching Cell in the jaw with an uppercut. The strike did little to perturb Cell whatsoever, and instead he seemed to take glee out of how impervious he was to Seventeen's attack. With Seventeen now open to a counterattack Cell uppercutted the Android in return, knocking him into the air and then giving chase after him. With Seventeen still reeling and unable to protect himself, Cell easily punched him in the gut and then used a curved kick to knock Seventeen back down towards the ground.

While all of this was going on, Oceanus had been trying to attack Cell only to have to pull her punches thanks to Seventeen and Cell moving around too much for her to accurately time anything. Whereas before she had only had a slight hesitance to perhaps hit the Android, now she actually considered him an ally of convenience and was quite against betraying their temporary partnership...but afterwards? She would make him kneel, using whatever powers she needed to made the arrogant man recognize her superiority.

"Damnit, Scarf, stop getting in the way!"

On the ground, Seventeen coughed up blood before rolling his head back to look up at Oceanus, "Well I don't think you can beat this thing to death with water or drown it, so maybe stop backseat driving and—"

Cell stomped down on him cut Seventeen off abruptly, "Sorry for interrupting. Here, let me help you with your troubles."

A few solid punches into Seventeen's gut later, Cell picked Seventeen up by his neck and gave him another solid hit to the abdomen. Unlike Piccolo's slug-like physiology, Seventeen was made of metal in addition to flesh and so he had a hardier frame: harder to crack, but unlike Piccolo Seventeen wouldn't be able to regenerate mechanical damage done to him in moments.

Cell raised his tail up above himself as he shifted his grip to better hold Seventeen by the back of his neck, where he could grab his collar and bandana both. This done, he opened up the mouth of his tail, which Seventeen saw and attempted to stop by grabbing its edges with his hands, "You-you monster. Nothing could be more detestable than becoming a part of you."

"Oh, you hurt me. But that's okay. All that you fail to understand will be made clear to you."

"It's perfectly clear what you are you insect looking freak, let go of me—" another hit to Seventeen's spine cut him off, though he still struggled to hold Cell's tail at bay as Cell slowly lowered it down on him. Given their stationary position Oceanus had resumed her attacks on Cell, but he was powering through and ignoring the damage she was managing to inflict with her wind so that he could accomplish his goal once and for all.

"Welcome home," Cell laughed even as blood ran down his body as he continued to fight Seventeen's grip to lower the mouth.

Knowing that if he let go it would be his death or worse, Seventeen fought with all his might to keep Cell off of him, "I won't…let you…do this!"

Oceanus could see that all she was doing was slowing Cell down by constantly cutting him, so she turned to the brother beside her to enlist his aid since she knew the other one wouldn't want to bother, "Haze, help me stop that thing!"

Haze growled towards Cell as he revealed that he had been all along, "I'm using my powers, but he's not weak enough yet! All I've done is undo some of what he has managed to gain from someone else, and I'm not strong enough to fight him yet!"

"Damnit," Oceanus hurled a stream of water at Cell to try and knock Seventeen out of his grip, "Hands off the pretty boy!"

Cell only laughed as the water crashed against him, still fighting through the pain being inflicted upon him to continue absorbing Seventeen, "It is useless, my scaled friend, you cannot stop the inevitable."

He noticed Oceanus looking past him, and then suddenly something touch his shoulder. Turning his head, Cell caught a large fist in the cheek just as he was about to succeed in overpowering Seventeen.

Seventeen dropped to the ground and collapsed from the pain he was in, taking a moment to look up and notice that now beside him was his fellow Android and fellow traveling companion Android Sixteen, who was standing in the island's breeze calmly as his red mohawk drifted to one side.

Cell wiped his mouth as he got up from where he had been bashed away to, "So, the big one is more powerful than I thought. Interesting."

Seventeen couldn't believe that Sixteen had managed to in one hit inflict more damage than he had with multiple, since Cell actually looked hurt by it, "Sixteen, it's you. I don't believe it. How did you manage to get him off of me?"

Sixteen smiled down at his friend, "I used one of my hard punches."

Now upright, Cell actually found himself enjoying Sixteen's interference, "I find this disturbance to be refreshing. Oh yessss...no tricks, just raw power."

Seeing how incensed Cell was now, Seventeen crawled onto his knees and started to get up himself as Sixteen continued to stand protectively by his side, "Hey, thanks for the help Sixteen, but I think you just made him angry. What now?"

"I am going to destroy him," Sixteen claimed without missing a beat, the giant Android's attention focused on Cell. He could sense the way Cell's power had changed up and down in the battle, and at this point of time he was certain that if things continued as they were and Cell continued to lose his energy without even knowing that he could put the evil being down for good.

"Sure, may I ask how?"

Sixteen walked past Seventeen to approach Cell, his voice remaining at his usual monotone as he explained his reasoning, "According to my calculations I am just as strong as Cell, adjusting for the power boost he received from two unknown foes and also for the energy drained from him by the green reptile," addressing his enemy, Sixteen hardened his voice, "Cell, I recommend surrender."

"What, to a piece of junk like you?" Cell mocked as he prepared himself for an actual fight now, unlike his beatdown on Seventeen or the annoying but ineffective attacks of the Shadow Dragon woman, "Doctor Gero did not mention you, but if your designation means anything then you should prove to be an inferior model to Seventeen."

Having seen Sixteen send Cell sprawling and scraping across the ground with a might no other had yet made Oceanus smugly grin down at Seventeen, "That block of metal hits pretty hard. Harder than you do, Scarf boy."

Seventeen wiped the blood from his mouth, still on his knees and catching his breath after the beating he just received, "Bite me, Calamari."

In the time of their small argument Sixteen and Cell had charged forth at one another, colliding each of their large bodies into the other and trying to drive the other back. During this Cell managed to sneak in a suck punch and knock Sixteen back momentarily, at which point he shot his tail up into the Android's neck.

"This ends now!" Cell triumphantly declared as he impaled the side of Sixteen's neck with his tail's tip, attempting to suck his flesh and bones through the tail's presently small hole.

No such thing happened, and instead Sixteen smiled at Cell as the monster craving for power was unable to steal his enemy's essence, "What?"

"I am Artificial Human Android Sixteen," the Android explained, for unlike the cyborgs Seventeen and Eighteen, Sixteen was completely artificial. Cell's attempt to absorb him failed because he had no biological component to steal.

With this in his favor, Sixteen grabbed Cell by the tail's end and clenched his fist tightly. Cell now at Sixteen's mercy, the Android flew up into the air with Cell dragged along by his tail, and once sufficiently in the sky Sixteen hurled him around like a lasso before hurling him down into the ground. Cell slammed into it hard enough to create a crater and kick up a cloud of dust, but he was unable to recover in time to use the dust to any sort of advantage as Sixteen landed down on top of his tail.

Cell struggled to get up as Sixteen used his foot to pin the tail while gripping it again with both hands, at which point he tugged up and ripped more than half of the long piece to Cell's body clean off.

Tossing the now removed part of Cell's body off aside, Sixteen considered half of his objective complete, "Now you will be unable to absorb anyone else."

Cell rose to his feet and laughed at Sixteen's assumption, "If only it were so easy..."

Just as Cell had recovered from the wounds to his body and arms before, he recovered from this too: his tail reappeared from where it had been ripped off in a quick display of his regenerative properties.

"I possess Piccolo's DNA in my veins, making regeneration quite possible."

This did little to change Sixteen's overall objective, so the serious and dour Android just took a fighting stance again, "Then I will have to leave nothing for you to recover from."

Oceanus couldn't help but rub in the fact that Seventeen's ally was stronger than him in the cyborg's face, "Your friend is quite impressive, Scarf. Maybe when I am teaching you your place my brother Nuova can challenge him."

"Sixteen is going to squash this bug, and then he's going to trample your ego, Blue, so I wouldn't count on it. We're the strongest ones around, so don't act so high and mighty," Seventeen countered, hoping that Sixteen would set aside his pacifism for a little bit to shut this woman up.

"What do you think, Syn?" Oceanus turned to her brother to see what he thought, since she was quite sure that he could beat the big android in green armor. Unfortunately, Syn was caught up in his own thoughts and was just ignoring her as he stared down at Cell. He wasn't going to bother paying attention to his sister's low self esteem issues or her seeming fascination with this Human who matched her arrogance.

Annoyed that she was being ignored, Oceanus looked down to see how Piccolo was doing after he had been taken out of the fight. Since nothing had happened to the Dragon Balls, she was confident that he wasn't dead yet, but he had been wounded severely, "Whatever. How is the green one doing?"

Haze tilted his head, "I am fine."

"Not you, the Namekian!"

Her question had gotten Seventeen to look over and see that Piccolo had recovered enough to remove himself from the immediate battlefield, now situated at the edge of the island and focusing on developing a plan to handle Cell rather than try to fight him again and be killed when an attack failed to damage Cell enough.

Looking back to the battle, Seventeen could see that Cell had managed to knock Sixteen over and was charging right at him, only for Sixteen to turn over on the ground and to hold out one fist.

"Rocket punch!"

Seeing Sixteen's forearm detach and fly through the air at a rapid pace to collide into Cell's face was admittedly awesome in Seventeen's mind, since it not only was powerful and knocked Cell back but it caught the bug completely by surprise. Sixteen got up and flew over to catch his fist to place it back where it belonged, while Cell growled as he felt his power leaving him bit by bit, finally feeling the drain Haze was having on him now that he was below the power he had begun this entire conflict at.

"This is not how it should go..." Cell complained, annoyed that his moment of triumph had been halted by some woman he didn't know and this outdated Android model.

Shaking his head, Cell growled as he charged at Sixteen to continue fighting, "I will not lose to an outdated junkheap!"

Sixteen smashed Cell back from the direction he came, now quite in the lead compared to his opponent and their gap widening with each moment.

Haze laughed, amused by how this silent giant was now wiping the floor with Cell, "That big one's got quite the punch. I thought of eating him, but I don't believe pure metal would be good for my teeth."

"I wouldn't worry about that."

Syn's tone sounded...off to Oceanus, and so she turned to see what was wrong when she caught sight of her young brother impaling Haze through his head and tearing out his Dragon Ball. Haze had not expected to be attacked and had not raised his defenses, so Syn's strike caught him entirely by surprise and killed him outright.

"Haze!" Oceanus yelled in anguish as she realized that Syn was inside of her barrier, and that if he was for some reason betraying his own family that she was next. Through tears she tried to distance herself from her brother, whose greater speed allowed him to close right in on her as he dropped Haze's body down into the Ocean below, "Syn, what the Hell are you doing!?"

Syn smiled wickedly at his sister, the Two Star Dragon Ball in his hand, "We are better off if our power is consolidated," he shoved the Dragon Ball down his mouth and it quickly appeared on his chest, the blue Dragon Ball becoming a part of his being as he stole his brother's power, "That monster gave me the idea."

Cell forgotten, Oceanus unleashed her powers and fury at Syn, "Traitor!"

Unfortunately for her, she was far outclassed by Syn Shenron's power and speed, and so he took no time to strike her, only failing to deliver an outright fatal strike thanks to Oceanus' wind attack diverting his arm a bit. As she yelled out in pain from this, Syn followed this hit up with a powerful strike to her that sent her on a collision course with the ground that was near instant. Oceanus impacted the island at such a speed that it broke the section she collided with and buried her partway into it.

Barely conscious after that last hit, Oceanus looked up and saw that her brother was forming a dark colored ki blast in his hand. She tried to summon her powers to protect herself again, but she could barely lift her wrist and so she failed at calling forth any wind or water to protect her.

Thinking this to be the end, she began to cry at the thought that her own family was betraying her like this, Shadow Dragon turning on Shadow Dragon, with her favorite brother Haze now dead at the hands of this newborn monster.

She shut her eyes to await the end, but when she heard the ki blast fire she did not feel any pain. In fact, all she felt was someone kneeling down on top of her.

"You alright, Blue?"

Oceanus cracked her eyes open to see that Seventeen had moved in the way of the attack and negated it using the energy barrier he was capable of summoning, though the effort seemed to have winded him.

He stood up from his kneeling position, having had to get in close to Oceanus to get her within the close confines of the barrier, and offered her a hand to get up.

"I..."

Oceanus started to reach for her hand before she realized what she was doing. This was that disrespectful, arrogant Human...Android...cyborg...whatever who dared mock her. To accept his help would be humiliating...

But, she realized, it was also the only chance she had at living. And because, unlike her brother Syn, Oceanus had been generated from a more neutral wish she was not beyond gratitude where it was due.

She took Seventeen's hand and let him help her up, her face red from embarrassment and humiliation at their now changed circumstances, "I'm only going to say this once, but t...thank you."

Seventeen turned his back on her to face the battle currently going on while Oceanus deflected another ki blast from Syn with her newly established wind wall, "Listen, you may piss me off, but my friend is fighting that monster out there by himself now and your brother wants your head on those spikes of his. You watch my back, I'll watch yours."

Regaining some of her composure, Oceanus bowed her head and accepted the deal presented to her, "You keep me alive and I might just forgive your insolence."

A temporary partnership couldn't hurt, not when an abomination and a kinslayer both were in need of a good dosage of death.

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 **A/N: Thank you to the-hunger-jaws, JenEvan, and Angel-no-Crux for your reviews last chapter, as they were most appreciated and helped inspire me to finish this chapter despite how busy life is. Also thanks to the-hunger-jaws, Igor De Souza Santos, 24, princesscheesecakecat, and Transformers g1's-Prime for favoriting the story, and to the-hunger-jaws, 24, XIII Xemnaz, Valkari7, and princesscheesecakecat for following it.**

 **I hope to hear your thoughts/ideas/comments in the reviews below, and thank you for reading!**


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